This application hereby refers to, and incorporates herein by reference, an earlier filed patent application entitled CYCLONE DUST COLLECTING APPARATUS FOR A VACUUM CLEANER, filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Feb. 28, 2002, and there duly assigned Serial Number 2002-10924. Applicant hereby claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. Section 119 for and from said earlier filed Korean patent application.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly to a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner having a contaminant removing means for removing contaminants from a grill assembly easily.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner separates and collects contaminants from contaminant-laden air that is drawn into the cleaner through a suction port. The cyclone dust collector operates by generating a helical flow or vortex of air, it uses a centrifugal force from such generated vortex of air to separate the particulate contaminants.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,835 (application Ser. No. 09/388,532) issued Mar. 6, 2001 to the same applicant discloses a vacuum cleaner having a cyclone dust collecting apparatus.
FIG. 1 schematically shows the structure of the vacuum cleaner having the cyclone dust collecting apparatus disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,835. As shown in FIG. 1, the cyclone dust collecting apparatus includes a cyclone body 20, a dust receptacle 30 and a grill assembly 40.
The cyclone body 20 includes a first connection pipe 21 connected to a suction port extension pipe 1a, a second connection pipe 22 connected to the cleaner body extension pipe 1b, an air inflow port 23 interconnected with the first connection pipe 21, and an air outflow port 24 interconnected with the second connection pipe 22. In the cyclone body 20, the contaminant-laden air is drawn in through the air inflow port 23, forming a whirling helical vortex current.
The dust receptacle 30 is removably connected to the cyclone body 20, and receives the contaminants separated from the air by the centrifugal force of the whirling air current of the cyclone body 20.
The grill assembly 40 is disposed at the air outflow port 24 of the cyclone body 20, to prevent a reversal flow of the collected contaminants through the air outflow port 24. The grill assembly 40 includes a grill body 41, a plurality of fine holes 42 formed in an outer circumference of the grill body 41 to form a passage to the air outflow port 24, and a contaminant reversal preventing plate 43 of frusto-conical shape formed at the lower end of the grill body 41.
Generally speaking, the vacuum cleaner having the cyclone dust collecting apparatus constructed as described above, the contaminant-laden air is drawn in by a suction force that is generated at the suction port of the vacuum cleaner, into the cyclone body 20 in a diagonal direction through the first connection pipe 21 and the air inflow port 23. The drawn air flows downward through the cyclone body 20, forming a vortex air current (indicated in solid-lined arrow of FIG. 1). In this process, contaminants are separated from the air by the centrifugal force of the vortex air, and are retained in the dust receptacle 30.
As the air current strikes the bottom of the dust receptacle 30, the air flows in a reversed direction, i.e., it flows upward through the cyclone body 20. The air then flows through the fine holes 42 of the grill assembly 40, the air outflow port 24 and the second connection pipe 22, and is then discharged into the cleaner body. Some contaminants borne by the upwardly moving air current strike the contaminant reversal preventing plate 43 and are thus reflected into the vortex air current. Other contaminants, which are still entrained in the upwardly moving air current after the air flow encounters the contaminant reversal preventing plate 43, are filtered out at the fine holes 42 of the grill assembly 40 as the air flows through the fine holes 42. These filtered contaminants may fall back into the vortex air current.
Contaminants which are not removed even by the fine holes 42, are discharged through the fine holes 42 and the air outflow port 24, but are filtered out at a paper filter of the cleaner body, and the clean air is discharged outside the vacuum cleaner via the motor chamber (not shown).
In the vacuum cleaner cyclone dust collecting apparatus described above, some contaminants adhere to the grill assembly 40 when the contaminant-laden air passes through the fine holes 42 of the grill assembly 40. As time goes by, the contaminants increasingly attach to the grill assembly 40, and finally clog the fine holes 42. As a result, problems like suction force deterioration and motor overload occur. Accordingly, the contaminants have to be removed from the fine holes 42 of the grill assembly 40 regularly. With the general cyclone dust collecting apparatus described above, in order to remove the contaminants from the grill assembly 40, a user has to separate the dust receptacle 30 from the cyclone body 20 and remove the contaminants manually or by using a brush. Accordingly, the grill assembly cleaning process becomes tricky. Also, since the grill assembly 40 is exposed during its cleaning, there is a high possibility that the contaminants will be inadvertently knocked off into the air, contaminating the surrounding area.
The present invention overcomes the above problems of the prior art. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner in which contaminants can be removed from a grill assembly easily even though a dust receptacle is in a mounted position, and the contaminants removed from the grill assembly are collected in the dust receptacle so as to keep the surrounding area clean.
The above object is accomplished by a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner made according to the present invention. The collecting apparatus includes a cyclone body that has a first connection pipe connected to an extension pipe adjacent to a suction port of the vacuum cleaner, a second connection pipe connected to the extension pipe adjacent to a body of the vacuum cleaner, an air inflow port interconnected with the first connection pipe, and an air outflow port interconnected with the second connection pipe. The cyclone body is adapted to form a vortex of contaminant-laden air that is drawn in through the air inflow port. A dust receptacle removably connected to the cyclone body for receiving contaminants separated from the air by the vortex. A grill assembly is disposed at the air outflow port of the cyclone body, and a plurality of longitudinal slots are formed in an outer circumference of the grill body at a constant interval from each other to form a passage to the air outflow port. The grill assembly prevents the contaminants collected in the dust receptacle from reversely traveling through the air outflow port of the cyclone body. A contaminant removing member can be moved up and down over the outer circumference surface of the grill body to remove contaminants that are attached to and around the respective longitudinal slots of the grill assembly. An operating lever has one end connected to a center of the contaminant removing member and the other end protrudes from an outside of the cyclone body through the inside of the grill body so as to move the contaminant removing member upward and downward.
According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of longitudinal slots have at least two opposing slots serving the function of a guide for the contaminant removing member when the contaminant removing member is moved upward and downward. The contaminant removing member comprises a cylindrical body with a rib that is inserted into the at least two opposing slots, and a brush is attached to an inner circumference of the cylindrical body.
The grill assembly includes a conical contaminant reversal preventing plate, which is integrally formed with a lower end of the grill body.
The other end of the operation lever is provided with a handle formed thereon.